The latest DM 93 Newsletter has a great article about the Mail In Tournament. I wanted to express my appreciation to Smithy (Consortium affiliate) for sharing the behind-the-scenes thinking.

This was my first MI in a long time, and this piece answered many questions. Therefore, it is my honor to bestow the official gold star!

You now will have recognition on the same level a Jimminy Cricket!

Trim

P.S. You really captured what I enjoyed most about the mail-in. I had two out of 15 that were pleasant surprises. Thanks for describing my experience too!

The ConsortiumArchMaster Poster

Joined: Nov 23, 2002
Posts: 9473
Location: on the golf course, in the garden, reading, traveling, and now Consulting

Posted:
Sat May 11, 2013 12:09 am

Smithy thanks you for your nice comments. He is the first Consortiumite to receive The Gold Star!

Pasted below, in case anyone else is interested, is that article:
__________________________________________________
DIARY OF A MAILER PARTICIPANT
or
TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF TOURNAMENT FIGHTING

Perhaps the chronicling of entering and fighting a warrior in The Mailer will be of value to newby managers? Perhaps there will be clues and tidbits of strategy and methodology that prove useful to new managers to D2? We shall see ………

--- Early March …………………………………………...

I thought to myself, “I have a pretty good team in Noblish Island. I wonder if anyone can be competitive in the upcoming tournament?” From that grew the idea of sending one warrior from the Useless Weapons team to the Spring Mailer in mid April.

Why compete in a tournament? These are the reasons as I see it:
1. To see if I, as a manager, and my warrior/s can compete with other managers and warriors in D2.
2. To attempt to win a TV or TC.
a. A TV (Tournament Victor) is awarded if a warrior can win 8 fights (before losing three and being eliminated) Along with the honor, a TV gets priority challenging for six months in the arena.
b. A TC (Tournament Champion) goes to the last warrior standing in each of the 11 classes. (Classification allows warriors of like experience – FE – to compete. It really would be outlandish to have a rookie fighting against a very experienced warrior!) (All TCs get a pre-announced valuable prize, typically a potion which can greatly enhance a warrior. Such as immortality potions, maximum damage doing potions, design your own warrior potions, etc)
3. To gain skills and experience which will help the warrior fight ‘better” in the arena. (For only $7, it is advertised that the average warrior gets five fights. While skill learning and potential dying are halved in tournaments, that is a lot of fights and a lot of skills for that price!) (And, yes, one can train stats, that also with the potential halved,)

What are the strategies that managers have in choosing what warriors to send to a tournament? Here are some of the thoughts:
1. How much have I budgeted or can afford? (Many managers send none, some send a few, and many send 20, 30, 40, or even 100+. The Consortium, of which I, Smithy, am affiliated currently. sends appx 30 to Mailers and 55 to Face-To-Faces. In the “old” days, those numbers were 50 and 100.)
2. Do I have “good” warriors? Realize that there are a handful of managers out there that ONLY send godling warriors and focus their D2 career on tournaments. Others select their best to send to tournaments. Some select warriors that need quick development and can get it in the multiple fight conditions of tournaments.
3. Are my warriors properly positioned for the classes they will fight in? For example, the Initiates class is for warriors with from 11 to 20 FE. (FE = fight equivalent; generically put, a fight in the arena counts as one and a fight in a previous tournament counts as ½.) Most managers will attempt to have their warriors at exactly 20 FE to fight in the class. Why? The more experience the warrior acquires, the better it becomes in fighting, skills, etc. A tournament warrior with 11 FE is at a disadvantage with one at 20! It should certainly be noted that not all TVs and TCs are won by warriors maxed in their class. There is always a chance.

Hence was borne the decision to send a warrior to do battle in the tournament and hopefully bring honor to Noblish Island. I knew that whichever warrior I selected would not be a rookie (zero fights prior to the tournament) and that I could only get him three fights (3 FE) prior to The Mailer. This would place him in the Apprentices Class. (1-4 FE) Not bad. I wish I could have maxed him at four, but it was close. I had five warriors to choose from which I rated, in my opinion, as a SZ12 better-than-average slasher, a SZ13 poorly designed 9WT/9WL aimer, a SZ8 solid basher, a SZ9 nice total parry scum, and a SZ5 interesting and not-bad-at-all bonused slasher. The interesting slasher, Harsh Words, was selected

Harsh Words is a 13-11-5-17-21-10-7 slasher. He has good endurance and good damage (bonused) and is at least +1 initiative in skills. He learns extremely well (in his three fights prior to the tournament he earned nine skills for a 3.00 skill learn rate. (As good as a top-end twenty-one witter!) His deftness is a weakness, especially for weapon selection, but he had shown reasonable proclivity for the HA (1 kill) and BS (1 extra damage blow) in his first three arena fights.

Assessing his chances in the tournament:
Weaknesses – Unmaxed FE; Deftness; Slashing style (slashers are not usually the best style for tournaments); Not a godling design
Strengths – Good damage for the size; He can hit; There are a lot of aimed-blows and total parries in this class, and he can handle them both well;
Estimated results: 3-3; if he can win more than he loses, it will be a very successful entry

--- Late March, about three weeks pre tournament ……………….

Time to send in the entry. What does that mean? I need to submit a MAIL-IN TOURNAMENT STRATEGY form for Harsh Words. An interesting thing about Mailers is that the manager may enter two strategies. He/she may select which styles he wants the “alternate” strategy to be used against. I would guess that there are very few warriors that do not enter two strategies. (Looking back at the last 100 Consortium warriors entered in Mailers, zero were entered with only one strategy.)

So, a strategy. Let’s see. My slasher, and slashers in general, have no defenses and no real desire to defend. So my primary strategy will be all out offensive. Harsh Words is, in general, reasonably fast and quick, but probably less so that most strikers and the better bashers and some other slashers. And the second strategy? Harsh Words, and young slashers, in general, are often at a disadvantage against scummy warriors. Slashers eat up endurance quickly, and if they do not hit early and hard, are likely to be scummed by the high hit point, high endurance types. Hence, I will give him a “slowed down” strategy against these types. While many styles can scum (or tank), I shall select the TP, which often does, and the WS which sometimes does, and is not typically going to outjump Harsh Words – even though he is slowed down.

Without further strategic discussion, these were the two strategies employed for Harsh Words during the 2013 Spring Tax Mail-In:

Fight 3 vs. FANGS (2-0-1- a killer!) of Supe Forces 7BOB
(Manager stole this name from Khisanth!) (Two well-known managers)
5’9” RH basher with HL, backup WH, wearing APA/F
Harsh Words is the aggressor; Fangs is saving endurance and “scumming”
Fangs is the type of basher that might be termed “tank basher”
In the first minute, Harsh Words swings twelve times to zero for Fangs
Harsh Words hits 10 times, 3 for “extra value”
He appears winded, while seemingly winning
In minute two, although tired, Harsh Words hits once
Then Fangs finally swings his monstrous halberd
Fangs hits for extra value and Harsh Words goes frantic and desperate
(Harsh Word’s desperation strategy kicks in)
Fangs strikes again, but it is parried and riposted by Harsh Words
Harsh Words hits Fangs two more times and wins the match.
Harsh Words learns decisive and initiative skills and an expert Initiative
Harsh Words is happily 2-1-0.

Fight 4 vs. Ice Cream Man (3-0-0) of Van Duel
5’5” RH total parry with SC/HA and wearing ASM/H
Because it is a TP, Harsh’s alternative strategy is used.
Ice Cream Man is not acting as a pure scum, rather is being aggressive
Ice swings first and twice, hitting once.
Thanks to the little armor and some CON, Harsh Words does not go down.
Harsh swings 5 times(1 crit). Crit hits and there are 3 parries and a dodge.
After one minute – too close to tell
Minute two is more Ice Cream than Harsh Words.
Ice ream has 4 scimitar swings and one hatchet, hitting Harsh’s body twice
Harsh swipes two times and both are parried. Ice forges ahead.
Minute three sees Harsh coming back with 8 swings (1 crit)
Sadly only one hits as ice Parries four and dodges three.
Harsh is winded, but edges ahead after three.
Round four, Harsh is only able to muster a weak swing
While Ice swings four and finished Harsh off with a crit.
Harsh Words learns 2 initiative skills, and goes 2-2-0, nearing elimination

Fight 5 vs. NOODLES (2-2-0) of Pasta
5’8” RH striker with a BS, backup DA, and surprisingly wearing ARM
Strikers tend to be a slasher nemesis, as they more easily get the jump
There are three clashes. Harsh is holding his own in quickness.
Harsh gets the jump and never gives it up.
1 HA hit and Noodles is desperate, and goes into the death intent routine.
The first thereafter hit is to the face and 4 hits later Harsh has a Kill!
Harsh Words learns an attack skill and is now 3-2-1.

Fight 6 vs. RETORT (4-1-0) of Legions of Hell
5’3” RH ripper with EP/HA(b/u HA) wearing APM/F.
(Could this be a Daydream Believer clone?)
Harsh jumps first, and luckily gets off a crit with extra value hit. Yes!
Retort becomes desperate, but holds on.
Harsh swipes, is parried and Retort tries to riposte and fails!
Harsh gets off another crit/extra value hit1
Harsh is fighting amazingly!
Harsh swings again, hoping to end it, but is parried.
Then Retort does riposte (Shucks! Not good at all!)
He lunges and somehow my slasher dodges.
He sticks me in the shoulder with the EP, unfortunately
Driving me on the verge of shock and desperate!
But Harsh somehow keeps going on his desperation strategy
One more BS swing and hit and Harsh has a fabulous win!
Harsh Words learns two wonderful decisiveness skills and goes 4-2-1.

Fight 7 vs. POOR BOY 4-2-0) of Go Now
5’1” AM waste; SC (b/u SC & DA), APA/S
Harsh’s alternate strategy is in play
Harsh swings twice, both parried
Poor Boy swings and hits twice, once for extra value
And it is all over. Harsh Words finishes The Mailer 4-3-1
He did acquire one more initiative skill.

--- Late April, a couple of days after the receipt of the fights ……………………………

Harsh Words returns to arena fighting, but the after assessment includes these tidbits:
1. He fought well. An under maxed, non-godling slasher going 4-3-1 is great.
2. He learned 10 skills. That is an appx 2.86 skill learn rate. (Remember, skill learning is halved for the tournament.) This confirms that his 3-turn arena rate of 3.00 is no fluke. He is a learner!
3. He has some knack. He doesn’t give up easily; he steals initiatives or overcomes riposte attempts.
4. He can both crit and hit hard for extra value.
5. He just may be a “keeper”.

--- Later April, the diary will be shared in the Noblish Island newsletter.